Muslims around the world in oral traditions and
in children’s literature about Muhammad’s com-
panions. He is especially honored among African-
American Muslims, who consider him an ancestral
figure. Warith Din Muhammad (b. 1933), leader
of the American Muslim Mission, called his fol-
lowers “Bilalians,” and he changed the name of
the Nation of Islam’s newspaper to Bilalian News.
Several mosqUes in African-American communi-
ties are named after him, too.
See also aFrican americans, islam among;
nation oF islam.
Further reading: Muhammad Abdul-Rauf, Balal ibn
Rabah: A Leading Companion of the Prophet Muham-
mad (Indianapolis, Ind.: American Trust Publications,
1977); Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the
Earliest Sources (New York: Inner Traditions Interna-
tional, 1983).
biography
A biography is a written account about someone’s
life story. The author has to make a choice about
what to include and exclude, how to organize the
narrative, and exactly how to represent the per-
son to the reader. Some biographies can be very
detailed; others may provide only a brief sketch
of a person’s life. In the vast field of Islamic lit-
erature, biography is one of the most enduring
genres, encompassing a cumulative body of texts
that span nearly 1,400 years in Arabic, Persian,
Turkish, and other languages. It was used to
commemorate important people and to highlight
their praiseworthy qualities for the instruction of
others. A special kind of Islamic biography, called
hagiography in English, was composed to empha-
size the holiness of saints, recount their blessings
and miracles, and portray their superiority over
their enemies and rivals.
The most important biographies of Muslim
religious figures are those written about Islam’s
foremost prophet, mUhammad. The prototype
for this group of biographies is The Way of God’s
Messenger (Sirat rasul Allah), written by mUham-
mad ibn ishaq (d. 767) and later edited by Ibn
Hisham (d. 833). The purpose of this work was
to authenticate Muhammad’s status as a true
prophet. It contains details about his ancestry and
family life, where he lived, relations with com-
panions and opponents, how he received revela-
tions of the qUran, his alliances and battles, and
miraculous events in his life, especially his night
journey and ascent. This book has been the main
source to which Muslims (and non-Muslims)
have turned through the centuries for knowledge
about Muhammad, although many other Muslims
have written biographies about him, too. His per-
sonal traits and accounts about specific events in
his life have been celebrated in poetry, song, and
folklore in all Muslim societies. One of the most
widely known modern biographies of Muhammad
by a Muslim is The Life of Muhammad by the Egyp-
tian writer Muhammad Husayn Haykal (d. 1956).
There have also been film and cartoon versions of
his life, although he cannot be shown because of
the formal Islamic prohibition against portraying
the Prophet in figural form. Since the 19th cen-
tury, many secular scholars in Western countries
have written biographies about Muhammad, such
as W. Montgomery Watt, Frants Buhl, Maxime
Rodinson, and F. E. Peters. Most of the Western
studies have sought to explain the historical ori-
gins of Islam and critically assess Muhammad’s
role as a leader, rather than portray him as an
exemplary prophet or holy man.
Muslim scholars have also excelled in produc-
ing biographical dictionaries, one of the most
characteristic kinds of Islamic literature. The stan-
dard for such dictionaries was set by Ibn Saad’s
Book of the Classes (Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir),
which was written in iraq during the early ninth
century to help establish the authenticity of the
hadith. It contains 4,250 biographies about the
men and Women of the early Muslim community,
including Muhammad, his family, and the first
caliphs. Later dictionaries told about the lives and
accomplishments of hadith specialists, qUranK 102 biography